A. It’s RAN Household Thanksgiving 2010 Preparation Insanity in the kitchen right now

and

B. I’m running out of daylight to take pictures!!

But I can’t help myself. As you can see, Running Around Normal looks a little different this afternoon!!

That’s because this whole week, I’ve been working with Cory of Zesty Blog Consulting to give my blog a facelift! We worked together a lot yesterday and today, and I’m happy to share with you the final product!!! I love it😀😀

He also gave a makeover to my other website, Fitconomy! I recommend checking out his superb work (and my content!) by either clicking on the hyper link, or on the cute little logo Cory created for me at the bottom right hand sidebar😀

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Let’s talk Black Friday.

I am the most anti-black Friday one person can get. I hate lines, I hate crowds, and I’d be more than happy to shovel over the extra 20 dollars NOT to stand in line for three hours. Additionally, I don’t get many days to sleep in. I’m not gonna waste them😉

I did, however, wake up with the sun this morning, and after some coffee and blogging I met up with my girl Heidi for a spinning session!

After class……I did the Black Friday thing. But my way!! After 9:30 in the morning and at a local establishment. I’ll stay far, far, away from Best Buy, Toys R Us, and Wal-Mart, but my local running store? I can handle.

Besides…they were having a 25% off of EVERYTHING sale.

So I made the impulsive decision to console myself from having to take a month off of running by buying some spin class shoes:

What can I say? I like to jump right in with both feet and immerse myself!

I was in and out in 20 minutes, and that includes the time it took for the guy to attach my clip ins for the pedals! I also left with some sweet black wick dry socks:)

I have been loving reading everyone’s Thanksgiving recaps. It makes me so happy to read about what so many of you are thankful for and how happy your Thanksgivings were. For my non-US readers, Happy Friday🙂

Thanksgiving 2010 was a fantastic one!

It started at the gym. I met my girl Heidi at the gym for Body Attack, and finished it out with 15 minutes on the step mill.

15 minutes on the step mill has me sweating more than a 6 mile run! It’s brutal!! In a good way🙂 I worked out – and worked UP and appetite.

Per the usual, I didn’t leave myself enough time between end of workout and getting in the car to head to my aunt’s house for Thanksgiving #1. We were due there around 1:00 and Thanksgiving lunch/dinner was soon after. What time of the day do you eat Thanksgiving? We’ve always eaten at my Aunt Kim’s at 1:00.

I packed up my two pies (pumpkin and apple) and the portabello lasagna rollups – which I didn’t take pictures of, and we headed over.

This year (almost – love you Aunt Bobbie!) EVERYONE made it! Almost every year someone has to be over at their spouses side of the family. It was the first year ALL of us cousins were together (except Jason, who lives in Florida.)

The love was flowing as we all stuffed ourselves silly, drank multiple glasses of wine and champagne, and played Balderdash.

I should have taken more pictures, but it’s times like this when I feel I need to live in the moment. I know, I know, it’s most likely times like this (Thanksgiving, with lots of food) that most food bloggers find it imperative to put the holiday to good use for the blog. But I just wanted to BE with the fam.

All of us cousins.🙂

When Shane and I had to leave to go back to Niko, I have to admit, I got a little sad. Our little house seemed SO quiet after leaving the magnificent chaos of my Aunt and Uncle’s house.

By the time we got home, I was ready for leftovers. However, anything left over from what I made I left over…there. So this sufficed:

And since the oven was on, I went ahead and got my squash cooking out of the way:

Now all I have to do is puree it and put it in the lasagna🙂

The rest of the night was spent with my eyes on the tube catching up with this week’s shows and my hand in this bowl.

I felt sick before I realized how mindlessly I was eating. Ciest la vie.

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And at approximately 3:00 pm today, I’ll know how my Aunt Kim feels every single year as she’s in the midst of cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Shane’s family comes over HERE for Thanksgiving dinner tonight. And I’m the host! Here’s my Thanksgiving menu. I’ll report back tomorrow on whether or not the bird was served.😉 It’s Shane’s duty! I’m a vegetarian and am NOT Sticking my hand up a turkeys you-know-where, and… we have a bit of a…defrosting issue over here.

But for now, I spin.

What was your favorite part of Thanksgiving? The food was incredible, as always, but the company was even better.

It has been an entire day of baking over in my neck of the woods! Well, baking and workouts, it seems.

After I posted this morning, I was on my way out the door to a power yoga class when the husband called me and let me know his “gaming chair” (don’t ask…) would be arriving by 9:30 via FedEx and it needed a signature.

So instead, I turned around and turned the office into a yoga studio by cranking up the heat and setting out my mat.

While the room heated, I got in a 30 minute interval workout on the elliptical in the workout room. After I was hot and sweaty from the cardio sesh, the room was too, and it was time to bend, twist and jump – Dave Farmar style! I did a 70 minute pod cast which left me giving everything I had. There were several times I uttered a curse word at Mr. Farmar when he had us holding one side a little (a LOT) longer than the other. I hate that!

It also left me STARVING. I had a mini breakfast (the usual pre-workout breakfast as of late) a few hours before, but I needed MOAR! Look what happened upon my bowl of oats this morning:

My mid morning client cancelled, which I was OK with, because I had hours to spend in the kitchen. Here’s a glimpse into the next, oh, five hours:

I stopped a few hours in because I had the urge to do some strength training – at home, with no equipment. Have you ever visited bodyrock.tv before? Zuzana kinda makes me uncomfortable and like I’m watching something dirty with her barely there workout clothes and very primal grunts, but she does have some good workouts. I just did the Try This at Home workout. Felt good to really use my muscles:)

I also had a small lunch, really just to get in a second meal. The snacking and tasting while baking throws my meal times off!

Tasty Bite to the rescue!

Over whole wheat cous cous with a side of snap peas:

Yum!

Now it’s after 5:00, and I’m no where near hungry because of all the tasting and quality control I’ve been doing all day. That, and I need to step awaaay from the caramel popcorn😉

It’s addictive!!

Are you able to stay away from snacking while baking and cooking all day? I just can’t help it! I even caught myself snacking on a piece of raw pie dough that was leftover. Raw pie dough doesn’t even taste good!! lol

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I think I’m going to retire for the night. All my baking and cooking is almost done to bring over to my aunt’s tomorrow. Then it all starts again tomorrow night for hosting at my house on Friday. And for this one, I have to serve turkey! I’m scared – Anyone have an easy no-fail way to cook a turkey??

Happy Thanksgiving Even, everyone!!! Be SAFE if you go out for Black Wednesday!! It’s sleeting here and I’m tired, so the only partying I’m going to do is watching this week’s Glee. Oh yeaaa😉

What a busy day yesterday turned out to be! Although I took the week off from working at the BIC, between clients, appointments, blog stuff, shopping, cooking, and movie night hosting the day and night filled up FAST. Anyone else never fail to overestimate the amount of time you have? I’m the queen of this!!

Cooking

Before even changing out of my pajamas, I began baking. Well, I began to start baking. I cut up all the butter for my pies.

Don’t mind the wine, that’s for the last section😉

I’m making THREE pies and one cake this year for our two Thanksgivings. I’m pretty excited, but I just need one full day!! And more butter…

Appointments

First stop of the day – the groomer’s! After dropping the frightful (makes my heart hurt) little girl off at the reliable groomers, I was a woman on a mission.

But she sure left the groomers purrrrty😀

Shopping

Between Target, Fresh Market, and Hobby Lobby. I think I’m set for Thanksgiving.

At least my table is😉

It’s nothing fancy, but I’m proud of it😀

But I’m sure I’ll notice I’m out of an ingredient just as it’s supposed to go into the recipe. Never Fails😉

Gym

After this excitement, I had to pound out some nerves. I ran 3.5 miles of intervals on the treadmill. Bad news Bears, my right hip gave me pain. I think the best thing to do at this point is cut my running days down to once a week, or even worse, 0 times a week. But that’s OK, there’s always spin, power yoga, and strength training😀

Blog Stuff

Some very exciting things happening to Running Around Normal soon!! I’m working with a web developer to clean ‘er up and give ‘er a face lift. I can’t wait!! This will hopefully happen within the next few days🙂

Girls Night!!

My friend, Kristin’s birthday was on Monday, so I had a few girls over to sip win, much on snacks, and watch Eat Pray Love. For the girls, I made some caramel popcorn:

And I actually liked Eat, Pray, Love!! It’s been a good three years since I read the book, which I enjoyed thoroughly, but I really enjoyed the movie, too. I know it got a lot of “meh” reviews.

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Another busy one today! But first, I’m off to some power yoga! No running before or after. I’m giving this hip some rest!

Have a fantastic one, guys!!

What dish are you most looking forward to for Thanksgiving? What’s your favorite Thanksgiving dessert??

My, my, what a marathon of a Monday yesterday was! It was one of those days that seemed daunting in the days before, and then at the very end you’re left thinking, “wow, I made it through!” You know?

Not that it was a bad day – there was just a lot packed in. I was at the gym working from 11 until about 7, then I trained a new client out of her house from 7:30-8:30, and then had a volleyball game from 9-10:30! Go go go!

The volleyball game was a blast – and we won all three games!! I left a happy, sweaty mess. Much happier than after last week’s loss😀

I did manage to somehow sneak in dinner in between my obligations:

Squash + black beans + feta = best combination ever.

Or so I thought they were black beans when I bought them…

When I opened the can, I noticed I actually got black soy beans! No wonder they were on sale…

I wasn’t too happy about that, since I’d already had soy at lunch, but this is what made me less happy:

FISH FOOD!! I had a bad seaweed experience last year (it tastes like fish food flakes!!) so I was extremely leery.

I enjoyed the squash ‘n beans with some Brussels Sprouts seasoned with TJ’s Every Day Seasoning:

Yum!

But fortunately, they tasted like regular ol’ black beans!

Around 11:00, after playing volleyball and showering, I was hungry again. Playing vball works up an appetite!

Well I made another one for lunch today – but these weren’t leftovers – I just made them today!

Gina posted about creating her own macro bowl the other day and after reading, and I started thinking about different combinations I’d prefer all together and in a bowl. I love the idea of getting your carbs, veggies, fats, and proteins all in one bowl and one meal – such an easy way to cover all your bases🙂

In the spirit of Thanksgiving and giving back this week, I thought I’d share with you guys a project I’ve been voting for daily this week.

Have you guys heard about Pepsi’s Refresh Project? Pepsi is giving away millions of dollars every month to fund world-changing charities, and WE can vote for which ones we think they should pick! One of my clients happened upon it and let me know about it and I’ve been voting ever since! I have been voting for the brain cancer charity because it touches my family very closely, but there are many, many, MANY awesome causes to choose from.